A rifle must be regularly cleaned to maintain precision and accuracy of the rifle, and also reduce risk of injury to an operator. A particular area of the rifle that requires cleaning is the breech chamber.
Many rifles include a rotating bolt that is received in and locks in place in the breech chamber, which is also known as the barrel extension or barrel extension chamber. The bolt can be rotated and unlocked from the breech chamber to release a spent casing and/or load a new round. The bolt may be rotated either manually by an operator, or automatically using a mechanical mechanism and gas created when a round is fired.
When a rifle is fired, carbon, oil and dirt collects in the breech chamber. The breech chamber has a complex and intricate geometry which makes it difficult to clean. In particular, the breech often has an undercut which is difficult to access.
Currently the most popular method of cleaning the breech chamber is to use a tool indicated generally at 112 in FIG. 1. The tool 112 has an elongate rod 114, and a head 116 (shown in more detail in FIG. 2) having steel wire bristles 118 extending along the length thereof. The head 116 is connected to the end of the elongate rod 114 by a screw thread connection. To clean the breech chamber a flannelette is positioned over the head 116. The head 116 and flannelette are then positioned in the breech chamber of the rifle by feeding the rod along a bore of the rifle into the breech chamber.
There are several problems with this method of cleaning the breech chamber. Firstly, the steel bristles of the tool wear quickly. Secondly, this cleaning method does not remove all the dirt and debris from the breech chamber. Some tooling kits provide alternative heads for attachment to the elongate rod 114 to improve cleaning, for example a pick. But, providing alternative heads does not solve the problem. Accordingly, many rifle users resort to using their little finger to clean the breech chamber. This is not an ideal solution because a finger can not easily scrape debris from the breech chamber, further it disadvantageously means that a user's finger becomes dirty, and there is a risk of a user injuring their finger.